


You Never Knew?

by Kattwyllie



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29495070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kattwyllie/pseuds/Kattwyllie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	You Never Knew?

Being one of the Senior A.D.A’s for sex crimes in Manhattan, you thought you’d actually get to see the inside of a courtroom once in a while, but apparently that wasn’t as true as you’d thought. Transferring in from Queens you were thankful to get to work alongside Rafael Barba for a few cases, he had a wonderful reputation, and actually respected you and your opinions. Even when you were working separate cases he often bounced ideas off you before taking them to trial. You were the next in command and the office knew it, you were well educated, and had been doing the job for years now, even if you were relatively new to the borough.

When shit hit the fan with Barba you were sad to see him resign, but wished him all the best, he gave you the best of kind words that he could, knowing that at least Manhattan SVU was left in good hands. That was of course until McCoy had convinced Peter Stone to stay on. You were immediately bypassed for any promotion, Chicago’s golden boy slipping into the office that should have been yours. It was a rocky year and a half that he was there, the squad was unwelcoming to him (all things considered, not surprising) and he stayed so sheltered up in his big office you rarely heard from him. You started taking on homicide and white collar cases just to stay busy as he sucked in more than he could handle. It drove you insane, but you knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it up.

Sure enough, he resigned just over a year after he started. Once again, you sat down with the bureau chief and McCoy, gently reminding them that you’d been with Manhattan sex crimes for four years, and Queens for another four before that. You’d been picking up cases as much as you could and you were damn good at what you did, your close rate sitting at a whopping 76%. Finally, you were moved up a couple of floors to take over the office previously held by the two men, as if the painstakingly hard work over the last eight years was finally paying off. 

It lasted roughly two months before Sonny Carisi got hired on at the DA’s office. You knew he passed the bar roughly three years ago, and his goal had to become a lawyer all along so you weren’t surprised. You were even at his going away/welcome party at Beekman with the rest of the squad and DA’s office. While he was friendly, and you could admit, had a bit of a charming side to him, he was just a new coworker to you and you were ready to get back to work, finally being the senior A.D.A for the department.

Or so you thought. You knew Carisi had the years experience working as a cop in sex crimes, but the fact that he was a brand new first year A.D.A and was getting literally every call from their squad, was starting to piss you off. Even on nights when there were suddenly four cases at once, your phone didn’t ring, you simply heard him complaining about being overworked the next day in the break room. Occasionally he’d pop into your office, asking questions about how things should or would play out, you’d give him the best advice you could, and remind him that you could take any extra weight off his shoulders, remind him that if he needed to take a bit of a break and sit second chair he was more than welcome to hand a case over. 

But he was stubborn as they came and the ratio of cases continued to be one to five. And when you did show up at the 16th, you were greeted with eye rolls and sighs. It was as if they’d forgotten that you’d been there three years longer than Sonny, or that they’d forgotten that a woman could even do this job, considering there were at least eight long standing female A.D.A’s you hoped it wasn’t that. You still did your job, you kept your win rate up, and you did what you needed to do to throw the bastards into jail, even if it seemed like no one appreciated it.

Sonny would show up at your office with questions, seeking your advice more and more as the time went on. You were surprised when he seemed to get more nervous with each visit rather than more comfortable, you thought the new position would feel comfortable by now, but who knew what was going on in that head of is. Eventually, he started to pass some cases off to you while he was swamped, (despite the fact that it should’ve been going the opposite way, but, at this point as long as you hand something to do that wasn’t paperwork, you didn’t really give a shit).

When you’d shown up to the 16th to take a case and even Olivia rolled her eyes you couldn’t take it anymore, snapping at her in remembrance of how there was more than just Carisi to help the squad work. Naturally your bosses heard about it and finally there was more of a leeway when it came to evenly spreading out the cases, and you were to take the ones they felt needed to be handled by a senior attorney. 

Carisi ended up in your office more often than not know that things were nearly being forced to be open, you held it to be the memory of when it had been Barba’s office. You thought he might be pissy about the situation but he kept his head down and did his work, surprising you ever so often with a coffee or danish. Once there was even a Tupperware of homemade cannolis after you’d lost a particularly gruelling case. You thought this meant he was warming up, but he still rarely talked to you unless he needed an opinion, and the day you figured you’d return the favour of a coffee and a danish he barely looked at you and fumbled over his words. 

Your interactions basically continued like this through the new year, winter took over the city and you took to adding a portable heater to your office to combat the cold while you worked later hours than normal. Friday night rolled around, you were still in your office, perched working through questioning and opening arguments when there was a knock at the door.

“Yeah?” You called, glancing up when you caught movement out of the corner of your eye, “Carisi, what’d’you need?”

“I-uh…I’m glad I caught ya…” .

“This about the Gallagher case?” You cocked a brow, “Calhoun can be a lot to deal with but she’s a friend, I can talk to her if you want?” Turning back to your work you watched out of the corner of your eye as he rung his hands.

“You’re..not mad I got the case instead of you?” Sighing, you dropped your forearms onto the desk, turning your attention to him.

“Gallagher’s a prick. Female defence, female judge, female Captain? Throw a female A.D.A in there and he’d be claiming there was some kind of sexist conspiracy going on to incriminate him further.” He nodded and you picked your pen back up, “and honestly I’d rather not deal with the whole situation. So, what did you need?”

Sonny felt his heart start to pick up more than it had before he’d even knocked on your office door. He wasn’t here to talk about the case, hell, half the times he showed up at your office he wasn’t actually there to talk about a case. He’d felt bad when he’d first started in the office, knowing that you had a hell of a lot of seniority on him yet all the attention was on him instead. He was genuinely surprised when you didn’t take it out on him, rather going to through the appropriate channels (minus the one blow up with Benson, but hey, you all had your moments). He thought he’d been getting somewhere recently, and decided to ball up and do it.

“Did you wanna drink?” He managed out. You paused in your work, your brows furrowed and lips pursed as you slowly lifted your head to fully take him in.

“There’s scotch in that cupboard,” you gestured with your pen, “but you don’t strike me as a scotch guy, even with the law degree.” His eyes glanced to where you’d pointed but he didn’t move, “listen, don’t you have cop friends you can go bitch about work with over a beer?”

“Oh..uh..I meant would ya want to go get a drink…with me?”

“Like to shoot the shit about work or are you asking me out?”

“I guess I’m askin’ you out.” He finally got his footing, shooting you a grin as his confidence returned, “kinda thought you felt the same after all the coffee exchanges.”

“Oh…sweetheart.” You half grimaced with laugh nearly taking over your cheeks, “I look at you and I see nothing.” He winced slightly at your words and before you could explain he spoke again.

“But…didn’t ya leave a Valentines card with that breakfast this morning?”

“No…” your brow furrowed, “I dropped you a coffee that was it.” He frowned, his glance turned down as your words sunk in, wondering how he could have misread things.

“Nothing…really?” He risked a glance back up at you and you jumped in your seat.

“Hold on! Sonny, it’s not what you think.” You noticed the way he suddenly unfroze at the use of his first name, “I uh…I don’t date men…”

“Really?”

“It’s office wide knowledge, I think it’s strange you never knew…”

“Oh..” he pondered over it for a minute, “Uh…sorry, I guess. I didn’t mean to offend or anythin’.”

“You didn’t.” You smiled, “you’re wrapped up for the day?”

“Uh, yeah why?”

“Cause I think I have a feeling I know who left you that present.” You flipped your file closed, starting to gather your things, “so let’s go have a drink as friends and talk about how to flirt with pretty girls.”

“Really?” His head tilted and you playfully rolled your eyes, he was adorable, in a puppy like way.

“Yeah,” you clapped at his arm, “but you’re payin since you technically asked me out.”

“Sure thing.” He laughed.

You were thankful that somehow, a potentially very awkward Valentines drink opened everything up and cleared the air between the two of you. Sonny started standing up for you more when it came to the squad, and you were able to finally work freely together without any hesitation or weirdness. 

You were particularly happy when he came bounding into your office ecstatic that Alice had said yes to a first date but now needed your help coming up with a million and a half ideas of what to do. You laughed, asking if you could meet him for a drink after work to talk it over, gesturing to your girlfriend that you were in the middle of something. His eyes darted between the two of you, the case files, plea agreement and takeout on the table and he began to apologize profusely, saying he’d meet you downstairs at the end of the day leaving the two of you in a small fit of laughter.

It was one way to start a friendship, that was for sure.


End file.
